The Seven Kingdoms, book one: Rising Darkness
by Tiger lover 16
Summary: Set in a medieval fantasy world, Charlie Brown, a pauper with a severe case of bad luck, is suddenly thrust into a high stakes adventure to recover seven mystical gems, team up with knights from seven different kingdoms, and fight against the forces of darkness, planning to revive their vile master. Not exactly how he intended to gain recognition, but what'cha gonna do?


**Tiger Lover 16: So, hello again my fine readers. Yeah, I know, I've got other stories I need to work on more, but hear me out because I've got a lot to say. First of all, this will be the last story I start and intend to continue with for a while, I'm still working on the next Hero of Light chapter and I intend to work on It's the Philosopher's Stone, Charlie Brown straight after, followed by You're Amazing Charlie Brown. But I just need you to know I was compelled to write this, something I couldn't deny myself the chance to do. Before I explain this story though, let me tell you my plans. As I've said, I will not be writing any extra ongoing stories after this, I'll be focusing on my other stories, as well as two projects I'm working on with other writers, one of which will be up very shortly. However, I've got a million ideas for Peanuts stories and crossovers that I just can't get out of my head, and I REALLY want to see them written but don't have the time to do myself. I tried doing a challenges thing in the forum, but I never got back to it after the first challenge and no one seems to be reading the forum anyway. So, what I'm planning to do is do like my Kingdom hearts challenge: I'll write a prologue or first chapter for stories I come up with, and leave them for other writers to adopt. It worked with It's Kingdom Hearts, Charlie Brown, so hopefully it'll work with more stories. I won't get around to publishing one of these challenges for a while though, since as I've said I'm SO busy with other stuff. But don't worry, I'm dead set on finishing all my other stories, and I'll get back to them all very soon. One thing I need to say about this story though is, updates will probably be slow on it. I know that's true for my other stories at this point, but I'm still working out a lot of things for this one and roles for some of the characters featured in it, I just wanted to leave you this prologue to see how people think of it. Just so you know, it's a huge crossover. It features characters and elements from Peanuts, Ed Edd N Eddy, Pokemon, Mario, Naruto, Spyro the Dragon, and a bunch of other series that you'll see. Though I'm classifying this as a mainly peanuts story, the peanuts series doesn't really take a big prominence in this chapter compared to the others, but it will in future chapters where Charlie Brown's the main character. Just so you know this is an extreme AU, it's basically a medieval style universe with knights, wizards and all sorts of other stuff you would see in fantasy, and many characters have different backstories to compensate, but they're still basically the same characters. This chapters mostly the backstory of this alternative Earth, and sets up the story, but it's all crucial to the plot. Hopefully you will enjoy it.**

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Prologue

Once upon a time there was nothing. The world was just an empty and barren land, devoid of life and light, shrouded for eons in darkness. That all changed when Arceus arrived. The divine being, known to his people as The Original One, appeared from an egg thrown into a vortex of chaos. When the great beast emerged, so did light.

No longer was there eternal darkness, now there was a sun to light up the sky, and stars to shine when night fell. With the creation of light, Arceus had already changed the universe. But he went on to do much more than that.

Arceus next began to form the world, once a pointless hunk of rock that held no place in the dark barely-existent universe, into a living world. He first formed the landscapes, creating mountains, trenches, and the like. As soon as the earth was shaped, Arceus summoned the clouds, and gave them the ability to pour water onto the world. The first rains gave way to the oceans.

But Arceus would not be satisfied with a world of merely rock and water. The next step in creating the Earth was to make plants, grass and flowers and trees to bring colour and life to the world, with the trees being given the sacred duty of providing oxygen.

While

Arceus created the sea creatures first, followed by many species of large reptiles, including dinosaurs and dragons, as well as many beasts that we may consider mythical. He then created mammals and birds, the insects, and all the species we in our world might know about.

Though Arceus loved all his creations equally, he took particular interest in the more unusual creatures, like the fire breathing dragons or the elves that could harness magic. To this end he created a variety of creatures with very powerful and diverse magical abilities to help populate the world, these many species were all classed by future generations under the order Pokémon.

Arceus was pleased so far with the life he had created, but he wanted to take things even further. To this end, he gave the dragons a special gift: intelligence, the ability to make higher decisions. The now smart dragons worshiped Arceus, and create their own Kingdom in the islands floating above the northern quadrant of the world, which they crissened Skyland. Here they would build the first cities, but it was back on the land below where they built the first shrine in the centre of the world, they would make many long journeys to visit this sacred place.

Dragons were also the first beings to discover magic. They harnessed the magical energies of the Earth, creating a vast array of enchanted objects. Necklaces that changed ones appearance, magical boxes that were a hundred times larger on the inside than the outside, The legendary Mirror of Erised that showed the viewer what they most desired, these were some of the early creations, but the dragons continued to experiment with magic throughout the centuries.

One of the most notable incidents that occurred at this time involved the dragons using their magical abilities to enter an alternate dimension, known as The Special Zone, from which they ended up unintentionally extracting a large and powerful gem known as the Master Emerald, along with seven smaller multi coloured emeralds believed to be connected to it. The Master Emerald was known to hold vast magical energies, the Early Dragon Elders theorised that the enormous emerald may have been as powerful as Arceus himself. The Original One seemed to realize this, and he also realized that the gem could cause much destruction if it's powers were ever used for negative purposes. It was for this reason that Arceus demanded the Master Emerald and it's smaller counterparts, later to be known as chaos emeralds, be hidden away in one of the smaller floating islands of Skylands, The Angel Island, which for good measure Arceus had relocated to the other side of the world.

Realising the potential in intelligent life, Arceus gave higher intelligence to the other magical creatures, such as the elves, centaurs, goblins, ogres, orcs, fairies and many more. The amount of intelligence varied on the species, centaurs were considered the wisest for some time, orcs were called dummies because they tended to ignore their intelligence and preferred to just use their strength to accomplish tasks. The giants were even worse, completely stupid and violent and they tore apart much of the world in angry fits. Arceus eventually had to banish them to the mountains.

With the desire to fill his world with many more intelligent beings, Arceus created apes. Gorillas, Chimpanzees, orang-utans. They were not given the same level of intelligence as the other species, rather they were more like slightly smarter versions of the monkeys Arceus had created earlier. This was originally a way to test how an animal would evolve if given higher intelligence. Very well it seemed, as over the next four thousand years, chimpanzees evolved into human beings. This evolution was notably fast, some say it was at least partly the result of a magic powder stolen from the dragons by greedy orcs and accidentally released into the jungles.

Human beings proved the most ambitious of the species Arceus had created, they used their intelligence in ways only the dragons had been able to do before them, creating towns and cities, dams, and functioning societies. After making an alliance with several other earth bound species and the sky born dragons, humans became the dominant species on the land.

But it didn't stop there. Over the next thousand years, the humans spread out to create several other kingdoms. The first of these Kingdoms was formed around what is now called Fort Peach Creek, located to the west of the world. Soon after this came the mushroom Kingdom, which was inhabited by a smaller race of semi humans who wore hats shaped like mushrooms. For some reason they refered to themselves as Toads. The Mushroom Kingdom grew to be the largest and most influential of the Kingdoms, covering much of the middle world, the shrine the dragons had originally built was surrounded by the town near which the Mushroom Castle would be built. This caused much initial tensions between the dragons and the Toads, but over the next two decades they were able to sort out their disagreements on the ground the shrine was well looked after by the Toad priests.

Peach Creek and the Mushroom Kingdom were only the start of it though. In the South Western corner of the world sprung up the kingdom of Birchwood, the smallest Kingdom to this day, but it still had much influence and was essential for trade between the many nations. Then, a hundred miles south of the Mushroom Kingdom, the kingdom of Hyrule sprung up, names after the species that founded the Kingdom, the Hyrulians. Rumoured to be decedents of human-elf hybrids due to their pointed ears, the Hyrulians built a strong a flourishing Kingdom and became experts in magic.

Another Kingdom later appeared in the far east, named simply as The Land of Ninjas. This was because, unlike the other Kingdoms who trained their defenders to be knights and wizards, the humans who resided to the west found new methods to battle and defend themselves. Utilising great stealth and unusual magical abilities defined as Ninjutsu, the people of the Eastern World became Ninjas. It was an untraditional concept, but it allowed the people to accomplish feats the other Kingdom's could not. The Land Of Ninjas had five magor villages, all devoted to a branch of elemental energies the ninjas could harness. The largest and leading village was called Konohagakure, or Kanoha for short.

And to top it all off, one last Kingdom was created in the North, Kanto. This region was noted for it's wide variety of pokemon species inhabiting it, more so than any other region in the world. The humans who resides here realised they could tame and train pokemon to fulfil a variety of purposes, which started a long history of close relationships between pokemon and people, and made Kanto perhaps the Kingdom with the strongest army... well, maybe after the dragons in Skyland.

Over the Eons these seven Kingdoms grew. And although there were a few squabbles over territory, there was never a war at this point and generally the seven Kingdoms were all strong allies that could depend on one another. The dragons shared their vast knowledge of magic with the humans, which the other Six Kingdom's used to great advantage. Over time the Kingdoms came to be ruled over by royal families, kings and queens.

But the world held dangers, and they all knew it, so they trained their greatest fighters to become warriors under the control of the royal family, knights. It was considered the highest honour to fight for your kingdom as a knight, and the armies of the Seven Kingdoms grew over time.

And it was lucky they did, because soon after the world faced it's first magor threat. The evil Eighth Kingdom, Atlantis.

Founded on an island located in the southern ocean far off the coast of Hyrule, the Atlanteans were a cruel race of creatures, hybrids of humans and a humanoid species of water demons. The Atlantians had discovered a form of magic that the dragons and all wiser humans had long refused to acknowledge, Dark Magic. This magic proved extremely powerful, and the atlantian army grew to a size that outnumbered any other Kingdom. And of course, the Atlantians went mad with power and declared war on the rest of the world.

The Atlantians began by attacking Hyrule, laying much of the mighty Kingdom to waste in the ensuing battles. The Mushroom Kingdom quickly joined their allies in battle, managing to drive the Atlantians out of the kingdom. But it was only for a short while, as the corrupt fish-people soon sent hordes to attack Birchwood and The Land Of Ninjas. Soon it was all out war between Atlantis and the Seven Kingdoms.

But though the Atlantians were mighty and ruthless, in the end they could not overcome the combined might of the combined Seven Kingdoms and were forced back to their own retched island. Arceus, having witnessed the entire war from the heaves, grew enraged at the Atlantians for all the death and misery they had caused, and appeared above their kingdom to declare judgement upon it. Finding them guilty, Arceus destroyed Atlantis with a giant meteor, obliterating their great city and sinking the island to the darkest depths of the ocean, where it still remains undiscovered. Most Atlantians died, but some survived, and sneakily went on to cause trouble and share their secrets of dark magic to humans in the other Kingdoms.

Though the Seven Kingdoms celebrated the defeat of Atlantis, the victory had come at a great cost. Now the people of the world had seen what evil truly was, and sadly it's influence spread.

Hyrule took three long decades to rebuild after the devastation the Atlantians had brought, and although it maintained close ties with the other Kingdoms, particularly the Mushroom Kingdom, the people of Hyrule harboured some slight resentment for the other Kingdoms for not coming to help them when first they were attacked.

Soon after that, civil wars broke out between the five villages of The Land of Ninjas. In particular, the village of lightning kumogakre, and the village of earth, Iragakure, saw the other villages as weak and teamed up to overthrow the Hokage, leader of Konoha. The other three villages teamed up to show them a lesson. Many generations of war raged between the ninja villages, which led to a certain distance from the other Kingdoms, as the royal families of the world did not wish to start another world wide war. In recent times treaties have been passed between the five ninja villages, and they are at unity again. But there is still much tension between the villages, and many fear that another Great Shinobi War may be on the Horizon.

The people of Kanto also became rather corrupt in their relationship with pokemon. Many civil wars broke out in the kingdom, particularly in the region of Unova at the furthest area North, where two brother had caused much devastation in their attempts to claim each others land. The dragons of Skyland got involved with the battles, and through some great diplomacy managed to convince the people to stop fighting. As time went on people began to realize that their use of pokemon, up until them merely as living weapons, was not all that ethical. Some people became pokemon professors, which were people who studied the behaviours of pokemon and strived to develop better relationships between pokemon and humans. Today pokemon are seen more as companions and allies to the Knights, in Kanto Knights who used pokemon were known as pokemon trainers.

Though the Atlantians were defeated, their use of dark magic inspired others to take it up. In particular, a cult known as the Death Eaters sprung up, led by a snake faced wizard named Lord Voldemort, who was a racist bigot who wanted to wipe out all intelligent non-human life and bring darkness to the world. The Death Eaters came into much conflict with the Kingdoms of Birchwood and Peach Creek over the Eons, and it was the continued struggle against them that drew these two Kingdoms closer together.

Another new race of demons also sprung up, the koopas. A race of turtle like beings, the koopa armies had only one objective: Take over the world by any means necessary. However, the koopas were nowhere near as threatening as the Atlantians, and were considered by many more of a nuisance. They mainly launched attacks on the Mushroom Kingdom, which to this day their race still holds a fierce rivalry with.

The dragons had started to grow slightly distant from the people of the lower realms, disproving of all the violence and evil that sprung up among the other Kingdoms. But they would soon face their own threats. Namely Ripto, a dinosaur who had learned to harness their own magic and combine it with dark magic, who attempted to destroy the dragons out of jealousy for all they had accomplished. Though the dragons managed to seal Ripto away into a stone tablet, they soon after faced an even worse threat. One in which they had themselves created. Malefor, a rare purple dragon with the ability to harness all forms of magic and the elements, was seduced by the darkness and turned on his race, planning to destroy the world rather than rule it.

But through all this, there was one evil that topped them all. Several centuries later, a mighty dark wizard appeared, more powerful, vicious and vile than anything the world had seen before. Phantom Dark. A man who made the Atlantians look like little girl scouts.

No one knows who Phantom Dark was or from where he had spawned, all they knew was that he was an abominable being, who used his God-Like dark powers to destroy many great towns and cities, and slaughter hundreds of thousands of people. And if that wasn't bad enough, he had learned how to create and army of beings spawned from the darkness. A race of living shadows called the heartless.

To make matters even worse, Phantom Dark then took control of the Death Eaters, promising Lord Voldemort he would achieve his goals. He also sided with Malefor, then the Koopas, and all the worlds other demons. He then made a deal with a smaller, newer village in the Ninja Nations, the Sound Village, who's leader was a renegade Konoha Ninja who seeked immortality. Breaking into one of the dragon temples on Skyland, slaughtering many dragons along the way and destroying a clutch of eggs, Phantom Dark also stole the tablet Ripto had been sealed in. For some reason Ripto was never known to have been freed, and it remains unknown what happened to the tablet. But the fact that Ripto never fought for Phantom Dark's army was inconsequential, as the evil army still posed a grave threat to all that existed.

The Seven Kingdoms at this time were in a panic, and for the first time since the Atlantian invasion they were all required to join forces to combat the dark master and his forces. For the next five years, many great battles raged on. Some of these the Seven Kingdoms won, others were won by the Phantom. The dark armies were quickly making their mark on the world, and it looked for a time like the world was doomed. But the people never gave up. They refused to stop fighting until the very end.

On one dark day fifteen years ago, Phantom Dark declared to the world through astral projections that he would finally begin his conquest, by killing the Mushroom King and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. As this was the largest kingdom, it would have been a crucial stepping stone for Phantom Dark's conquest. That was when everyone knew, it had to end here. If the world was to continue to live in the light, the Seven Kingdoms must unite their armies for one great battle to stop the Phantom from taking over the Mushroom Kingdom.

On the day Phantom Dark was to make his move, the armies of good gathered in what would be known thereafter as the Valley of The End. Leading them were seven of the greatest Knights and heroes of the Kingdoms.

Mario, the plumber turned Royal Guard of the Mushroom Kingdom. As an eighteen year old labourer he had gained glory by saving the king's daughter from the koopa king, Lord Bowser, and had gone on to be a magor player in the Mushroom army.

Then there was Ignitus, the leader of the current order of Dragon Elders, the wisest and most powerful dragons in skylands. Weilding the element of fire, the wise dragon was ready to smite as many demons as he need to defend the world.

There was Sir McRich, a warrior from Peach Creek, known for his boisterous attitude and brutal actions, but also the greatest warrior their kingdom could offer.

There was Link, a time displaced young hero in a green tunic. Weilding the legendary master sword in the name of Hyrule, Link swore to end this dreaded war here and then before finding a way back to his own timeline.

From the land of Ninjas there was Jiraiya, a perverted hermit who spent much of his time spying on women, but beyond that he was also wise, strong and a noble ninja, who embodied Konoha's firm belief in the Will of Fire.

From Kanto there was Sir Arron Ketchum, a Pokemon Trainer from the famed House of Ketchum who was also skilled in channelling aura, a sort of spiritual magic that provided great use in battle.

But though they were all great warriors, one man stood above them all. A brave knight and a master of Light magic, and all forms of combat, Sir Bill M Schulz hailed from Birchwood, and was celebrated as the greatest of the worlds heroes. It was largely he who kept the Death Eaters from conquering Birchwood and Peach Creek, and he had already played a large part in this war for the Seven Kingdoms. It was only natural that he led the armies in this final battle.

When Phantoms Dark's armies arrived, the battle began. It was a long and brutal assault, on both sides hundreds were slaughtered. The battle raged for twenty long, bloody hours, as the great armies clashed and clashed. For most of the battle, it looked like Phantom Dark's forces were sure to win. But the iron will of the heroes persisted.

The tide of battle started to turn, as Sir Arron Ketchum and Link teamed up to bring down Bowser. Sir Arron was tragically killed in the onslaught, but his and Link's combined efforts did gravely weaken the king, enough that he and his koopas fled like cowards.

In the skies Malefor was locked in battle with Ignitus and the dragon elders. The purple dragon's mastery of all the elements allowed him to defeat three of the four elder dragons, but Ignitus would not fall. The fire dragon forced Malefor back down to Earth, where Sir McRich dealt him a killing blow to the heart with his enchanted sword. But Malefor was immortal, he would not die, no matter how much they weakened him. So Ignitus instead summoned the ancient spirits of the Dragon Ancestors, who dragged Malefor directly into hell where he would remain trapped forever.

But the battle did not turn fully to their favour until Sir Schulz and Mario teamed up to battle directly against Phantom Dark. The accursed wizard arrogantly challenged them, leading to an hour long fight that would be hailed as the greatest duel in history.

For the longest time the fight seemed even, but then a tragedy occurred, as Schulz pushed Mario out of the way of one of Phantom Dark's dark lances, saving the petite Knight but leaving Schulz with a fatal wound through the chest. Mario became distraught at his friend's injury, and enraged at the Phantom, who he continued to attack. Phantom Dark at that time seemed to gain the advantage over Mario, but the still living Schulz gathered all of his remaining magical energies and struck Phantom Dark from behind, leaving him vulnerable to a final blow from Mario's golden dagger. The Phantom died there, cursing the heroes and swearing vengeance upon the world. With the war lord dead, Mario pulled out an enchanted fire flower and set his carcass ablaze, a fitting end for one so vile.

And after that, the battle was turned fully in the favour of the Seven Kingdoms. With Phantom Dark dead, the heartless he had summoned to make up the majority of his army vanished, leading the forces of good to easily vanquish all that remained. Lord Voldemort and Orochimaru, leader of the sound village, fled the battle after losing to the combined might of Ignitus, Sir McRich and Jiraiya, and soon the battle was won.

After the defeat of the Phantom however, Mario played no further part in the battle. Instead he chose to remain at his dying friend's side. Tears in his eyes, Mario promised Schulz that he would be remembered as the hero who won them this battle. But Schulz didn't care about that, he had another request he gave to Mario. He told Mario that he had secretly loved a peasant woman from Peach Creek, a woman named Jill Brown. Before he died, he informed Mario that he had secretly started a family with Jill, a one year old infant son named Charlie, and a new born daughter, Sally. With his dying breaths, he begged Mario to take them back to his home kingdom of Birchwood, under their mothers last name so his enemies would not know of them, and for he and the other united heroes to keep them safe. Mario promised he would, and Schulz died with a smile.

And so it was, the second great war was won. Phantom Dark was gone, his followers either dead or scattered. The Seven Kingdoms celebrated, their unity stronger than it had been since the Atlantian invasion. And Bill Schulz was given a golden statue at the heart of every Kingdom, hailed as the hero that ensured the dark one's defeat. All those who fought in the battle were given honour and glory of course, but none more so than him.

Link, the hero of time, accessed a time portal hidden in the forests of Hyrule, in an effort to return to the time in which he originated. He swore to his allies that they would meet again, however.

Jiraiya returned to being his usual hermit self, travelling the world and keeping an eye out for his enemy Orochimaru. Ignitus returned to Skylands with the other dragons, where he looks after the only dragon who's egg survived the raid of Phantom Dark, another purple dragon called Spyro. Sir Mcrich went on a quest some time after, but no one has heard much from the brave warrior since, not even his little brother Eddy. Sir Arron Ketchum was remembered as a hero in his region of Kanto, and the greatest pokemon master who ever lived. His young son Ash wishes to be like him.

And Mario did as he was promised. Discreetly, he relocated Jill Brown and her children to Schulz's home town in Birchwood, where they could lead a peaceful life. The only ones Mario dared tell were Ignitus, Jiraiya, Sir McRich, Link before he left, and his own brother Luigi. With the exception of McRich and Link, who's locations were unknown, they all continued to watch over Schulz's children from time to time. No one dared to tell them about their true heritage throughout their childhoods, but Mario knew someday they would have to reveal the Brown children's secret to them. No child should go their entire life not knowing who their father was, after all.

And after that, there was peace. Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters disappeared after the battle, the rumour is that the snake wizard never truly recovered from the injuries that he sustained in battle, and that he was unable to use magic any more because of them, though no one really knows what happened to him, not even those who beat him. Orochimaru's village of evil ninja just seemed to vanish as well, though unlike Voldemort he has been seen from time to time, tracked by Jiraiya as the sage tried to prevent Orochimaru from gaining the great powers he desires. The koopas continued to terrorise the mushroom Kingdom, but without Phantom Dark around they were hardly a threat more than they were a nuisance again, and they were often defeated single handedly by Mario, perhaps with Luigi backing him up.

So yeah, despite a few incidents that arose in the next fifteen years there was peace. Phantom Dark was dead, and the people of the world believed they were free of him forever.

But good things never last, I'm afraid. And as we finally begin the story we are here to tell, the boy named Charlie Brown was in for the adventure of his life. One where he would make many friends, and many more enemies. Darkness is rising, and the dreaded Phantom may not be gone forever after all.

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**Tiger Lover 16: Ok, so, there you go. How'd you like it? I want to say right now, this isn't the full backstory, there are many other events in the history of this world, but this is all you need to know to start off. I'll explore the rest of the backstory more as the story progresses, or mention certain things in my author's notes in case I can't find a place to incorporate them. This whole thing's still in the planning stages, and I'm more focused on my other stories at the moment. Like I said earlier, I'm publishing this mostly to get people's opinion on this story and whether people want me to continue it. So, yeah, please by all means review. I mean it this time, I need as many people's opinions as possible on this. I probably will write more on it in the future anyway, since this idea fascinates me, but I still want to know everyone's feedback. Hopefully you enjoyed it, hope to see you soon on another story's authors notes.**


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